We get two different big ones, one small one. We're not listed in any of them because we have our service through the cable company. Oh--and our HOA puts out a resident phone book every year. Waaayyy too many!

I have several phone books. We live in a suburb of a megalopolis, and the problem is that some books carry classified and numbers for east of us, others have south of us, and others include cities north of us. So we just have lots of big phone books, which I detest.

We have been getting about 4 a year. Verizon, AT&T, Century-tel and one other. I think I only got 2 new ones this year. I guess I need more than 4 though... cause not one of them had a listing for our local library when I looked a week ago.

None. We get our phone service through the cable company.

Our phone service is through the cable company also. I had hoped that going that route would eliminate at least some of the unwanted phone books here. Didn't help. There is currently 5 of them, all from different publishers, stacked on the bookcase. In the last month 2 others have been thrown away befor getting in the door. What a waste of trees, time and money.

The house next door has been vacant for 3 years. Each time we get one dropped by our mail box, there is one dropped over there too.

I only get one. Wish we got two, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. They are not that big.

Sue

We get at least four...two from here and two from Omaha NE. Each city puts out a Dex phone book and a yellow pages one.

we get 4, 2 from each local phone co. they don't even make it into the house we dump them into the recycling bin immediately lol. such a huge waste on these companies' part, we haven't used a phone book once since we moved to orlando 13 yrs ago. it's ALL about the internet & cell phones to us lol we haven't had land line for several yrs (that's sooo 1990 lol) ~ liz

One from phone company and one from some other place. I keep last years in my car.

Shirley

WOW, great response! I get two in the large size, one small one, one just for Edmond, rather than OKC, and then there is the other company.

With other words, way to many phone books. I have no problem rotating an older copy to my trunk....

I shall see about getting on their list to get only one phone book!

Thanks for the idea.

Moni

We get one very small one, though when we lived in the city we received one Yellow Book and one Dex. Each May when they came out there would be large bins to toss your old phone books in for recycling. I never use a phone book anymore since I too look everything up online.

I usually get two a year, from different companies. Just a couple of days ago Dex sent me one for Council Bluffs. That is probably 3 hours from here so I will just put it in my recycling can.

I just got a white pages and a yellow pages, and tossed them directly into the recycle bin. About a week or two later got a "car" phone book, which went into recycling also - *not* into a landfill. Often I'll get another one or two from other publishers.

Yellow pages are advertisement. Rates are based on distribution so if they drop unwanted ones, they get paid more. It doesn't cost much more to make more books, it's the initial runs and smaller runs that get more expensive. Plus delivery of this type is not like the mail service, UPS or FedEx. They do NOT go by address. The delivery agent gets a territory to cover and a volume of product to deliver to all the buildings in that area. They can estimate or use city maps to determine number of items needed and they usually give some extra product in case of damage.

I tried out their CD rom one time and that was a joke. I look things up on the internet and print my own "phone book" when needed for the vehicle.

The 2 or 3 times in my life I've needed a phone book while away from home was solved by stopping at a gas station and borrowing theirs. I also keep the library phone number in my cell so I could call them to look something up for me if I needed it. Or I could always use a "lifeline" and "phone a friend"... if I had any! :) Never saw a need for a phone book in the vehicle except for kindling or bathroom supplies while camping! There's FAR better things to carry in the vehicle IMO.

After I posted my question here and read the responses, I see that it is pretty much agreed that there are too many phone books being received.

So I googled and found that there is already a ground swell of people wanting to opt out of receiving them. Take a look; google something like Too many phone books or Cancel phone book delivery and you will see there are many ways to opt out.

This is an excerpt from one site that I found helpful:

Resources needed to produce 500 million phone books

* 19 million trees
* 1.6 billion pounds of paper
* 7.2 million barrels of oil (not including fuel used for delivery)
* 268,000 cubic yards of landfill (less than half of directories delivered are recycled)
* 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity

BTW, when I replied to the email from the company I had contacted, I asked that NO phone books be delivered to me.

Sue

We get a city one and a county one. I'm surprised we get any b/c we haven't had a land line in several years so our names not in a phone book. When you 411.com us you get an address we haven't lived at in 9 years, but my cell phone has our old land line # that we had for 40 years.

First of all I will say that I'm the recycling manager with Yellowbook. If you don't want to receive a yellowbook, simply visit www.yellowpagesoptout.com and submit your information. Yellowbook honors all opt-out requests. I would also like to clear up a couple of misconceptions about a phone book. The all new Yellowbook is made from industry wood waste and recycled paper, printed with soy based inks, bound with vegetable based adhesives, and all wrapped up in a new 7" x 9" eco-friendly size  plus itÂs 100% recyclable. Best of all, we partner with companies that are as committed to the environment as we are. They use hydro-electric energy to power production, adhere to strict environmental standards and maintain certification with some of the top stewardship councils in the world.

For more information, please visit http://corporate.yellowbook.com/recycling/